Give some love to the most underrated wines

Icame across an online piece during the week, clickbait for people like me. It was a list of one person’s idea of the world’s most overrated wines and I was pleased to see that it featured Screaming Eagle, the Californian red wine beloved of people with far too much money and not a whole lot of taste. I had it once and it was fine but a bit over the top in terms of fruit and oak. The 2019 costs €4,500. A bottle.

Also included was Yellow Tail, which surprised me. Does anyone rate this stuff? I mean it sells like crazy but its fans don’t flock to Vivino to log their appreciation, surely? (I checked. Some of them do). And also included was Albariño, which struck me as a wild and somewhat mad generalisation. I get that this grape is hugely popular and seemingly ubiquitous, having come from nowhere a couple of decades ago, but most of it is pretty good. And some of it is bloody good.

It set me thinking on what I think would make a much more interesting list: the world’s most underrated wines. There would be fortified wines, especially sherry and madeira, New Zealand Chardonnay, Australian Riesling, the top white Bordeauxs, Germany in general, Loire reds, Dolcetto from Italy and, now for an obscure one: Franciacorta because it may be expensive but it gives Champagne a run for its money.

I’d also add Corbières. When I was in my late teens I used to stay with family friends in a rambling old house deep in the Home Counties of England. Being from a near teetotal household I was impressed that wine was served every evening at dinner.

I remember now that it was pretty rough stuff but I liked it. And I made a note of the label that just said ‘Corbières’. In those days the wines were just a commodity, sold largely in bulk. It remained an unfashionable region for many years.

But in time, pioneering producers like the Lignères of La Baronne and the Bories of Ollieux-Romanis, put Corbières firmly on the map.

Typically for Languedoc reds, there’s Grenache and Mourvèdre but Corbières is all about Carignan, sometimes regarded as a rather charmless grape. Here, however, it adds depth and colour and somehow pulls a mineral quality out of the soil.